To estimate a distance between a transmitter and a receiver in a wireless communications network, the transmitter can send a signal to the receiver at t1. The receiver, as soon as possible, returns a reply signal to the transmitter. The transmitter measures the time of arrival (TOA) of the reply signal at time t2. An estimate of the distance between the transmitter and the receiver is the time for the signal to make the round trip divided by two and multiplying by the speed of light, i.e.:
  D  =                                                  t            1                    -                      t            2                                      2        ⁢          c      .      This simple method ignores possible delays at the transmitter and the receiver. Therefore, the estimated distance is too large.
FIG. 1 shows a better method for estimating the distance, see W. C. Lindsey and M. K. Simon, “Phase and Doppler Measurements in Two-Way Phase-Coherent Tracking Systems,” New York, Dover, 1991.
The times of the transmitter and receiver clocks are t1 and t2, respectively. The transmitter sends the signal 101 to the receiver at time t1=0. The receiver sets its clock to t2=0 at a coarse estimation of the arrival time of the signal, which corresponds to a time t1=tprop at the transmitter, which is the propagation delay. However, the estimation of the arrival time is different from the true arrival time by a time offset toff,2, which is because of the errors in the estimation algorithm and the processing time.
The receiver returns a reply signal 102 to the transmitter after an elapsed time interval T known to both the receiver and the transmitter, this corresponds to a time t2=T at the receiver, and a time t1=tprop+toff,2+T at the transmitter. The interval T is made large with respect to the processing time, toff,2<<T.
The transmitter receives the reply signal at a time t1=2tprop+toff,2+T. The time taken to process reply signal is toff,1. This time is measured at the transmitter. The round trip time is t1=tround, from which the distance can be estimated, assuming that the processing delays, toff,1 and toff,2, are known at the transmitter.
There are problems with the method described above. The transmitter can possibly estimate its own processing delays, but not the processing delays at the receiver. The only way these can become known to the transmitter is by conveying this information to the transmitter. This increases the complexity of the system and overhead. Furthermore, that method also assumes that the transmitter and receiver clocks run at the same rate, i.e., there is no clock drift, which is unlikely in cheap clocks used in low cost transceivers. If there is drift, then the time interval T elapsed at the receiver will be different from the same interval as measured at the transmitter.
Therefore, it is desired to improve the accuracy of two-way ranging.